> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ainomos.ch/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Glossary

> The words Ainomos uses, explained in one or two sentences each.

Terms are in alphabetical order. Each one links to the page that explains it in full.

## A to D

**Advisory.** A source that informs an answer without priority over other sources, for example a passage from a document. Compare with *binding*. See [memory and sources](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/memory.md).

**Agent approval.** An action a connected app wants to take that Ainomos holds until a room owner approves it in the Inbox. See [the Inbox](https://docs.ainomos.ch/chat/inbox.md).

**Agent door.** A room setting that decides whether connected apps can reach the room at all. See [rooms](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/rooms.md).

**Alias.** Another key a decision can be found under, for example its number in an older system. See [decisions](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/decisions.md).

**Archive (a room).** Takes a room out of active use. Its evidence stays findable. See [rooms](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/rooms.md).

**Audit log.** The organisation's list of evidence records and other recorded events, for platform admins. See [audit log](https://docs.ainomos.ch/privacy/audit-log.md).

**Binding.** A source that is ranked first and given to the model as authoritative, such as an accepted decision. See [memory and sources](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/memory.md).

**Budget.** A room's monthly spending limit for model use. With a hard stop, model calls stop when the budget is spent. See [usage and budgets](https://docs.ainomos.ch/models/usage-and-budgets.md).

**Chat model.** The language model that writes answers. See [models](https://docs.ainomos.ch/models/overview.md).

**Company sign-in.** Signing in through your organisation's own identity provider, such as Microsoft Entra ID or Okta, instead of an Ainomos account. See [identity and SSO](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/identity-and-sso.md).

**Connection.** An AI app that is linked to Ainomos. A *personal app* works as you. An *organisation app* signs in as itself. See [connecting apps](https://docs.ainomos.ch/apps/connect-apps.md).

**Content language.** The language, German or English, in which Ainomos writes drafts, proposals, and explanations for your organisation. See [branding and language](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/branding-and-language.md).

**Convention.** A rule that guides answers and never blocks. See [rules](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/rules.md).

**Curator.** A person a room owner names to look after the room's knowledge, either for the whole room or for its memory only. See [roles](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/roles.md).

**Data class.** A room's protection level, from C0 (experimental) to C3 (strictly confidential). It decides which models may read the room's content and how personal data is handled. You choose it when you create the room. See [data classes](https://docs.ainomos.ch/privacy/data-classes.md).

**Decider.** A person named for one decision type in a room, who accepts or rejects drafts of that type. See [decisions](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/decisions.md).

**Decision.** A recorded choice a room has made, with a key, an author, a status, and a decider. It applies to answers and apps once it is accepted. See [decisions](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/decisions.md).

**Decision key.** A decision's number within its room and type, for example ADR-017. It is never reused. See [decisions](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/decisions.md).

**Decision types.** ADR for architecture decisions, BDR for business decisions, and SDR for security decisions. Each type can have its own deciders. See [decisions](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/decisions.md).

**Dreaming.** Background upkeep that looks for contradictions, outdated entries, gaps, and missing links in a room's knowledge, and turns what it finds into proposals. See [dreaming](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/dreaming.md).

**Dreaming proposal.** A finding from dreaming that waits in the Inbox until a person accepts or rejects it. See [dreaming](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/dreaming.md).

## E to M

**Embedding model.** The model that turns text into a form Ainomos can search by meaning. An organisation uses exactly one, and it is locked once documents are stored. See [models](https://docs.ainomos.ch/models/overview.md).

**Evidence record.** The record Ainomos writes for every answer and every governed action: sources, rules checked, model, cost, and who approved. It keeps the question and answer only as fingerprints. See [audit log](https://docs.ainomos.ch/privacy/audit-log.md).

**Exception.** A time-limited, approved permission to depart from a guardrail, for one room and for everyone or named people. Hard rules allow no exceptions. See [exceptions](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/exceptions.md).

**Finding.** A problem that the knowledge checks found, listed on Knowledge Health for owners and curators. See [Knowledge Health](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/knowledge-health.md).

**Fingerprint.** A short code calculated from a text. The same text always gives the same code, but the text cannot be read back from it. See [audit log](https://docs.ainomos.ch/privacy/audit-log.md).

**Guardrail.** A rule that blocks, but allows a time-limited exception that a responsible person approves. See [rules](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/rules.md).

**Hard rule.** A rule that blocks and allows no exception. See [rules](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/rules.md).

**Import.** Bringing files into a room on the **Import** page. Ainomos sorts each file into documents, rules, exceptions, or decision drafts. See [import](https://docs.ainomos.ch/import/overview.md).

**Inbox.** The place where everything waiting for your decision collects, across all your rooms. See [the Inbox](https://docs.ainomos.ch/chat/inbox.md).

**Log shipping.** Sending audit events to your security monitoring system (SIEM). See [log shipping](https://docs.ainomos.ch/privacy/log-shipping.md).

**Maintainer.** An organisation role that switches maintenance on and off and keeps access while Ainomos is closed for maintenance. See [roles](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/roles.md).

**Maintenance mode.** Closes Ainomos for everyone except maintainers until a maintainer ends it. See [system status](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/system-status.md).

**MCP.** Model Context Protocol, the open standard that AI apps use to connect to Ainomos. See [connecting apps](https://docs.ainomos.ch/apps/connect-apps.md).

**Memory.** Where Ainomos keeps the knowledge a room's answers draw on. Every room has its own, and answers also use the memories of the rooms above. See [memory and sources](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/memory.md).

## O to Z

**Organisation app.** An app or bot that signs in as itself and works in the rooms a room owner allows. See [organisation apps](https://docs.ainomos.ch/apps/organisation-apps.md).

**Owner.** The person responsible for a room until they hand parts of it to deciders or curators. Every room keeps at least one owner. See [roles](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/roles.md).

**Passage.** A piece of a document's text that search can find and answers can cite. See [documents](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/documents.md).

**Personal app.** An AI app you connect and use as yourself. It sees only what you may see. See [connecting apps](https://docs.ainomos.ch/apps/connect-apps.md).

**Personal data.** Information about a person, such as a name with an email address. Ainomos checks for it and, depending on the data class, masks it or holds back answers that contain it. See [personal data](https://docs.ainomos.ch/privacy/personal-data.md).

**Platform admin.** The organisation role that manages settings, people, models, and sign-in. It gives no automatic access to the content of rooms. See [roles](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/roles.md).

**Platform library.** Read-only public reference material, such as Swiss federal law, that an installation can offer to every organisation. See [memory and sources](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/memory.md).

**Purpose.** One sentence that says what a room is for. Apps read it too. See [rooms](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/rooms.md).

**Question translation.** A room setting that also searches each question in the other language, German or English, so an English question can find German documents. See [asking questions](https://docs.ainomos.ch/chat/asking-questions.md).

**Relation.** A typed link between two records, such as "supersedes" or "depends on". See [how knowledge works](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/overview.md).

**Residency.** Where a model runs: in your cluster, in your own cloud, or with an external provider. It limits which data classes the model may serve. See [models](https://docs.ainomos.ch/models/overview.md).

**Responsibility.** A named duty in one room, owner, decider, or curator, that carries the right to decide there. See [roles](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/roles.md).

**Room.** The place where Ainomos keeps one area's knowledge, rules, and decisions, and decides who may use them. See [rooms](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/rooms.md).

**Room tree.** Rooms sit inside each other: organisation, department, team, project. Rules and knowledge pass down the tree. Membership does not. See [rooms](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/rooms.md).

**Rule.** A statement that Ainomos applies to answers and app actions in a room and the rooms below it. Rules are hard rules, guardrails, or conventions. See [rules](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/rules.md).

**Sign-in security.** The account menu entry where you manage the password and authenticator app of an Ainomos account. See [signing in](https://docs.ainomos.ch/get-started/signing-in.md).

**Source weights.** Room settings that decide which kinds of source count most in the room's answers. See [rooms](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/rooms.md).

**Starter credit.** A one-time amount on Ainomos cloud that pays for chat with the platform's models. See [models](https://docs.ainomos.ch/models/overview.md).

**Text recognition (OCR).** Reading the text of scanned pages that contain only an image. See [documents](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/documents.md).

**Top room.** The room named after your organisation, at the top of the room tree. See [rooms](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/rooms.md).

**User visibility.** Organisation-wide switches that decide whether people without a responsibility may browse knowledge, decisions, and the graph. See [visibility](https://docs.ainomos.ch/privacy/visibility.md).

**Validity dates.** The dates between which a document is in force and answers quote it. See [documents](https://docs.ainomos.ch/knowledge/documents.md).


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